Nusa Penida Island

There are some neighboring islands near to Bali. There are 3 most famous ones located around 20 km away from Bali to the south-east known as Nusa Penida Island, Nusa Ceningan Island and Nusa Lembongan Island. Among these three islands, Nusa Penida Island is the largest one, and also well known as the best destination for scuba diving.

To many people, these three Islands might not be recognized as parts of Bali’s district. Somehow, they give a great contribution to the tourism development. As we have known, Nusa Penida Island is the biggest one among the three. While Nusa Lembongan Island is the second larger island and Nusa Ceningan Island is the smallest one. Each of these Islands shares their own unique tourism destination and arts. In Nusa Penida Island, you will find beautiful pure beaches and some conservation places protecting plants, birds, and also turtle. Besides that the local people have a very special dance known as the Golden Egg.

When you are diving in Nusa Penida Island, you will likely to see the large pelagic, such as Manta Ray’s (Manta Birostris) at some locations, such as Mola Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) and Manta Point Dive Site. If you get lucky, you will sometimes see the whale-shark too.

As part of Bali’s district, Nusa Penida Island is under the Klungkung regency. If you want to go to Nusa Penida Island from Bali, you need to go to Padang bay to take a ferryboat crossing from Bali to Nusa Penida Island. The only ferryboat available is called as Roro-Nusa Jaya Abadi. This boat will take you crossing the Badung Strait (located between Bali Island and Nusa Penida Island), and the trip will take around one hour to get to the Toya Pakeh Harbor in Nusa Penida Island. After you have reached the island, you can continue the trip by having a modified pick-up car or known as “omprengan”.

The northern dive sites of Nusa Penida like Crystal Bay, Pura Ped and Toyapakeh are good destinations for Drift Diving. A boat ride with BIDP's speed boat of 45 minutes brings you to the best underwater adventures here in Bali Indonesia.

The divesites around Penida can be challenging. Upwellings from the deep can cause thermoclines and let the temperature drop to 20 degrees celsius. Currents running between the Nusa Islands and Lombok Strait are most of the time southward, but can be influenced in direction and strength by the monsoon seasons.

The three islands, Nusa Penida Island, Lembongan Island and Ceningan Island are situated at the Wallace Line which lies at the middle of Bali Island and Lombok Island. This Wallace Line is a separation line between the eco-zones of Asia and Australasia. To the west of the Wallace Line, Asiatic species and organism live, while to the east of the Wallace Line, Australian species and organism exist for living. According to the scientist, these boundaries have been existing for 50 million years. They are predicted to be the south-western edge of Sunda Earth Crust Shelf which are believed to link some main islands in Indonesia, such as Java, Sumatera, Borneo, Bali to the Southeast Asia’s mainland.

Nusa Penida Backgrounds

Nusa Penida Island as the part of Bali district under the Klungkung Regency has its own history. The Nusa Penida Island was a place where the Gelgel dynasty from Bali was held in prison at early 18th century under the Majapahit ruler. The Gelgel Dynasty was one of the Balinese Kingdoms which conquered the Lombok Island once.

Badung Strait, during WWII the Badung Strait was the location of "The Of Badung Strait". This event took place on 19 and 20 february 1942. Allied forces had a confrontation here with the Imperial Japanese Navy.

What to do in Nusa Penida

Diving in Nusa Penida

There are so many things to do in Nusa Penida. As the famous diving destination, there are some great diving locations in Nusa Penida Island, such as Penida Bay, Batu Meling, Batu Lumbung, Toyapakeh, Manta Point, Batu Abah and Malibu Point. The flow passing through the Lombok Strait is commonly heading to the south, while the tidal streams’ directions are commonly influenced by the seasons of monsoon.

During the southeast monsoons, the tidal flow tends south; during the northeast monsoons, the tidal flow tends north. In the area of the strait north of Nusa Penida, the pattern is relatively simple, with a flow, at peaktide, of about three-and-one-half knots. Tidal streams in Badung Strait are semi-diurnal, but the character of the stream is very complicated because its direction runs obliquely to the general south to north direction of Lombok Strait, and the channel has a curved shape.

Besides beautiful destinations, there are many other interesting tourism destinations to visit in Nusa Penida Island. You will find that there are many pure beaches as well, or you can go to the top of Puncak temu where you will be amazed with a spectacular scene from the height. Besides that, there are also some arts performances that you can watch.

A beach which is closest to the harbor is situated in Toya Pakeh village. In this beach, there is a floating restaurant. The most important thing is you are allowed to dive in this beach and see very beautiful reef. Indeed, in this beach, reef is an important component that is still preserved from any damage.

Besides Toya Pakeh Beach, Nusa Penida has a very cozy beach. It is around 4 km from Toya Pakeh. This beach is situated in Sakti Village at Banjar Penida. I guarantee you that this beach is different from the famous Kuta or Sanur. The beach which people call it Crystal Bay, is very quiet, far from crowd. The water is sparkling blue. The sand is black but it is covered by white sand. The beach is very clean because people at Banjar Penida keep it clean. And the beach is gated by escarpment.

Going up quite far away from the beaches, you will head to Puncak temu, the top of elevated ground. This is a place where you will be able to enjoy beautiful scenery of Nusa Penida Island from the bird-eye view. You will also see some white shrines at this top with so many trees that seem protecting these shrines from the outside world. This is something that you will find interesting because most parts in Nusa Penida Island are commonly lacing of water and dry, while here in Puncak Temu, there are green fresh vegetables as the sign of the water existence.

On very south of Nusa Penida there are villages named Sekartaji and Suana. In these villages, Nusa Penida Endemic Bird: little sulfur-crested cockatoo can be found. In all regions in Nusa Penida there is only four little sulfur-crested cockatoo left. One female and others are male. You are lucky if you can take a photograph of this bird since this bird is very energetic.

Nusa Penida does not only offer the amazing tourism destination but also unique dances. Sanghyang Dewa dance is one of them. This dance must be danced by little girl who has not got menstruation yet. People of Nusa Penida categorize it into sacred dance because it is danced on special day at the temple. That little girl is unconscious while she dances it.

Toyapakeh

There are actually two sites in Toyapakeh nemaley as the Toyapakeh Wall and Toyapakeh. These twosites are rich with the underworld creatures, such as fish and corals. The wide variety of fish that you will see by diving in this location is amazing. You will sometimes see the large pelagic as well by creeping around the blue. Toyapakeh Wall is a must diving place that you shall not miss. This is the place where you will encounter the presence of the Mola-mola hanging out in season.

Malibu Point

When you are taking a boat trip along the coast line of Nusa Penida Island, you will come to Manta Point where some huge animals are commonly seen. Manta Point is an open water area, so that diving is not possible to have in certain circumstances.

Malibu Point is a diving site with gray reefs, reef white tips, silver-tips and numerous sharks. While Penida Bay is another anchorage, and the rocky islands have an interesting forms; something like an old resting elephant. The bay is vulnerable to swell, creating-up-and-down-currents. Then, Manta Point is a limestone rock off Pandan cafe. The swell is relatively strong.

Crystal Bay

If you are looking for a calmer bay, Crystal Bay will be a perfect spot for you. In Crystal Bay, you will also find many Antheases and batfish that will come in a certain periodic of time, because there is a bat cave near to this bay.

This site consists of a fantastic little bay in shallow water that offers excellent opportunities for photos, before sliding down into deep drop offs. Superb coral is only matched by the equally superb marine life. This is another excellent place to locate the Mola Mola which gather to be cleaned on the slopes of the reef.

Nusa Penida Bird Sanctuary

Besides West Bali National Park, there is also a conservation park in Nusa Penida Island known as Nusa Penida Bird Sanctuary. In this reservation, a hundred of nearly-extinct birds are protected, The Nusa Penida Bird Sanctuary is organized by Begawan Giri Foundation and also friend of National Park Foundation supported by the whole community of Nusa Penida Island.

In this island the birds is protected by the whole community of Nusa Penida, by addition of a decree on bird conservation in the awig-awig (traditional law) of Nusa Penida. The community enforces sanctions such as fines and sepekin banjar (ostracized) for anyone caught harming the birds. All 35 villages on Nusa Penida island have now signed bird protection laws and villages and Harbour Authorities are working together to fight the illicit trade. The role of community is not just end up there, at the sanctuary young people from the surrounding village are trained as staff in the clinic; bird handling and research procedures.

Up to May 2007 Nusa penida Bird Sanctuary has already released 49 Bali Starlings, and recently it is reported another ten offspring fly free. The success on the Bali Starling opens another conservation project. White Cockatoo, an indigenous species of Nusa Penida, now in danger, it is reported that only three white cockatoos roaming freely on the sky, clearly in worse situation than Bali Starling. Nusa Penida Bird Sanctuary now put her best effort to save this rare bird.

How to get there

There are several way to get Nusa Penida Island and they are:

Public Transport	Speed Boat	Cruises
Roro Nusa jaya abadi	Maruti express boat	-
Fery inerie jakarta	Caspla express boat	-
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